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I want to thank Engineer Edward Amana, Chairman of DIGITEAM NIGERIA, for inviting me to present a brief goodwill message at this event. I am pleased that our colleagues in DIGITEAM NIGERIA, have brought together so many people connected with Nigerian creativity, for a workshop that targets our script writers and content producers. As you are all aware, DIGITEAM and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), are driving the Nigerian transition from analogue to digital broadcasting. While the new television format is an impressive technical feat, the most important single issue in digital broadcasting is the creative end, that content represents. There is no digital television worthy of the name, if it is not driven by very high-quality content.
Television in the new, digital era would be a 24-hour fare, and since we would not put up colour bars on television channels, it is clear that content of all genres must drive television.
At another level, Nigeria has gradually become the heart of creative content on the African continent: television; musical; drama and so on. But we have actually just scratched the surface of our incredible strength and potentials. A very structured national approach can assist the flowering of talent and creativity. Last year, the NBC organized content financing workshops in Lagos, Enugu and Kano. We were overwhelmed by the turn out of young, creative Nigerians from all walks of life, who came to share experience about what they have been doing or trying to do, in respect of the content that, hopefully, would drive Nigeria’s digital broadcasting era. What was the delight for me, was that the young people that turned out came from all sections of Nigeria. I have always known that there are several ways of telling the Nigerian story from the platforms of our creative endeavours, but the effort last year, deepened my optimism.
At a related level, is the national strategic imperative at the heart of the effort to offer the platforms for the flowering of creative talent today. As our country has become increasingly younger, with a median age of 17.9years, and 75% of the population being under 35, it has become very clear, that content production, script writing and all related forms of creative endeavours, would increasingly grow as avenues of creation of new jobs for our economy, as well as becoming harbingers of new platforms of patriotic exertion by the young generation of Nigerian content producers, script writers and others.
I believe that this workshop has come at a very important time and will become a major milestone in our efforts at consolidating the creative base for the flowering of digital broadcasting. I am delighted that you have secured the services of some of the leading names in creative pursuits in our country; people like Greg Odutayo, Zeb Ejiro, Charles Inojie and several others. I want to thank Engineer Edward Amana and his colleagues in DIGITEAM NIGERIA for this initiative. On behalf of the National Broadcasting Commission, I want to assure you that we would remain dedicated and focused to ensure a creativity-driven digital switch over in Nigeria. Good luck to all participants in this workshop.
Thank you very much for your attention!
